Support Reason for More Coverage of Gubmint's (Turrible) COVID-19 Policies!
While the press and politicians try to make the virus a political morality play, Reason keeps its head even while screaming at anti-scientific restrictionism.
These past 12 months, like the nine or so months before that, and God only knows how many months and years ahead of us, the dominant issue affecting life, death, and freedom across the globe has been COVID-19 and the public policy response thereof.
From the outset, Reason has been blasting Food and Drug Administration obstructionism to vaccines and tests, opposing both lockdowns and the bogus claims of "science" behind them, and sounding the warning about expanded government powers that have nothing whatsoever to do with curbing this or any other pandemic.
While journalists and politicians continue to sully themselves by politicizing every inch of the policy debate, Reason has kept its rational head, even while letting out a few guttural screams now and then. Our coverage and commentary of COVID-19, as this post will demonstrate, is one of the best reasons to give Reason Foundation some of your hard-earned tax-deductible scratch during our annual fundraising webathon.
Won't you please consider donating to Reason right the heck (look, it's Sunday!) now?
You can break down our COVID-19 coverage into countless subcategories; indeed, webathon posts by Katherine Mangu-Ward and I have already pointed to a half-dozen huge pandemic stories we ran over the past 12 months. But combing through our other top 125 pieces over the past year, I've sorted the coronavirus material into five main modes of coverage. So pop some blood pressure medication, prepare yourself a Suder-cocktail or Gillespie micro-dose, and take this trip down infuriating-memory lane!
1) Insisting on scientific rigor in a politicized public health environment. A Jacob Sullum specialty.
* "A New Study Confirms That Reopening Texas '100 Percent' Had No Discernible Impact on COVID-19 Cases or Deaths: Critics said Gov. Greg Abbott's decision was 'extraordinarily dangerous' and reflected 'Neanderthal thinking,'" by Jacob Sullum.
* "Even If Requiring People Who Have Recovered From COVID-19 To Be Vaccinated Is Legal, That Doesn't Mean It Makes Sense: The failure of legal challenges obscures an ongoing scientific debate," also by Jacob Sullum.
* "An Epidemiologist Confirms That the CDC Director Misrepresented Her Study of Outdoor COVID-19 Transmission: A co-author of the article that Rochelle Walensky cited says outdoor settings probably account for 'substantially less than 1 percent' of infections," by, er, Jacob Sullum.
2) Critiquing pandemic lunges for power. Paging J.D. Tuccille!
* "Biden's Vaccine Mandate Is the Latest Sign of the Presidency Becoming a Monarchy: The presidency has always been inclined to unilateral power—and many Americans like it that way," by J.D. Tuccille.
* "Michigan Moving To Make 'Emergency' COVID-19 Mandates Permanent: Nothing is more permanent than an 'emergency' mandate," by Jarrett Skorup.
* "Americans Are in Full Revolt Against Pandemic Lockdowns: Individually and in organized groups, people are pushing back against lockdown orders," by J.D. Tuccille.
3) Howling about disastrous education policy. I suppose this is where I come in.
* "The Equity Mess: Despite their professed goals, Democrats' pandemic policies have widened disparities between races, classes, and genders," by Matt Welch.
* "CDC's New 'Reopening' Guidance Will Keep Schools Closed in the Fall: This is what you get when you mix 'science' with 'stakeholders,'" by Matt Welch.
* "San Francisco Schools Renamed the Arts Department Because Acronyms Are a Symptom of White Supremacy: 'We are prioritizing antiracist arts instruction in our work,'" by Robby Soave.
4) Looking for the "COVID-19" in COVID-19 policies. Team effort here.
* "Giant New Spending and COVID-19 Relief Bill Also Creates 2 New Museums and a Library, References Dalai Lama Controversy: 'No responsible legislator should vote for such a thing,' said Justin Amash (L–Mich.)," by Robby Soave.
* "Biden's 'Rescue Plan' Will Sic the IRS on Anyone Who Earns $600 in the Gig Economy: What does this have to do with the pandemic? Nothing," by Eric Boehm.
* "Biden's Coronavirus Relief Package Has Almost Nothing to Do With the Coronavirus: The president keeps insisting on the urgency of $1.9 trillion in spending. But much of it would be spent on non-urgent policies unrelated to the pandemic," by Peter Suderman.
5) Miscellaneous outrage. (Literally everyone on staff.)
* "He Wouldn't Wear a Mask on a Bus. One Thing Led to Another, and He Ended Up Dying in Jail.: Given the dangers of jails and prisons, the pettiest of crimes can become death sentences," by Brian Doherty.
* "Until Today, Joe Biden, Jen Psaki, and Rochelle Walensky Were All Publicly Opposed to Federal COVID Vaccine Mandates: 'That's not the role of the federal government.' What happened?" by Robby Soave.
* "Cuomo's New York Is Just Throwing Away Vaccines Rather Than Distributing Them Competently: More than 4,100 people died of COVID-19 yesterday across the country, but some New York medical providers are dumping vaccines instead of putting them in people's arms," by Liz Wolfe.
Is this the kind of COVID-19 coverage you want to see more of? Then please donate to Reason today! You'll be glad you did.